Society is Healing
But There’s Work To Be Done
It’s been 16 days since the election. If you’re like me, you were pleasantly surprised at how well Trump and the Republicans did. If you’re a Democrat you’re probably still coming to grips with it and either trying to determine where it all went wrong or in full denial. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the further left you go the more supporters will cling to the misogyny/racism narrative.
That Trump saw his support grow with both women and minorities since 2016 does not seem to dissuade these people but that’s not unsurprising given that these are the same people who blamed white supremacy for the death of a black motorist at the hands of 5 black police officers. When logic is not required to support your argument then proving it wrong becomes impossible.
The left will either learn from its mistakes or double down on them and there is little we can do to influence this internal debate. We can, however, take our own lessons from the election and what has followed and draw our own conclusions as to what it means.
The Republican sweep of the Presidency, Senate, and House along with Trump winning the popular vote (at this time) should be a clear indication to everyone that the Democrat’s economic performance and social agenda were failures. The economics is simple, people felt they were better off under Trump than they were under Biden and inflation is the obvious driver. Everything is much more expensive than what it was 5 years ago and if you’re going to call your economic policy “Bidenomics” you’re going to have to be prepared to take the blame when people feel the economy is failing them.
Social policies are a more complicated issue since they extend beyond what politicians say to include the policies they support and the behavior of the institutions that back them (ex. the media). For years people on the right have been complaining about media bias, woke policies in advertising and entertainment, and the media’s approach to this election didn’t help. Not only was the media complicit in hiding President Biden’s clear mental decline, but as soon as Harris was named his successor, they flipped a switch from her being a drag on the Biden/Harris ticket to being the only way to save democracy.
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
It’s difficult to determine how many people bought into the media message but it’s safe to say that many saw it for what it was, propaganda supporting the media’s preferred candidate. However, the transparent bias of the media is insufficient to explain her campaign’s failure. To really understand it you have to look at her policies, especially the ones she tried so hard to hide. While Harris did her best to appear center left during the 2024 campaign, enough evidence existed from her ill-fated 2019 campaign to show people who she really was.
Both Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz have a history of supporting progressive and/or far-left gender policies. Harris is on record as supporting taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners, while Walz famously signed a bill mandating that Minnesota schools provide free menstrual products in all restrooms – for both girls and boys. These efforts enabled Republicans to label Walz as or “Tampon Tim” and allowed the Trump campaign to brilliantly skewer Harris with its “Kamala Is For They/Them. President Trump Is For You” political ads.
How much did these policies and the overt media bias matter? It’s difficult to say at the moment but we can see from a few recent events that many Republicans and media executives think it’s quite a lot:
Republicans look to ban men from women’s bathrooms
AOC drops pronouns from her social media accounts
Morning Joe hosts met with President Trump
HBO says ‘Harry Potter’ Series Will ‘Benefit’ From J.K. Rowling’s Involvement: She ‘Has the Right to Express Her Personal Views’
The debate surrounding gender identity and bathroom use has been a political issue for several years with far-left activists encouraging children to undergo surgeries and labeling anyone opposed to them “transphobes.” In response “11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls and women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.” While some Democrats have attempted to label the move as “far-right bullying,” the fact that U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez removed her pronouns from her X bio in the months leading up to the election may be an indication that even the Democrats see this as a losing issue.
Likewise, given the criticism that J.K. Rowling has received over her stance regarding “the reality and immutability of biological sex” and free speech, the statement by HBO acknowledging that “J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views” should not be mistaken for a minor victory but an acknowledgment by at least this one streaming service that their business is in danger if they don’t course correct. In this case course correction is acknowledging the importance of free speech and the reality of biological sex.
Like Variety, Morning Joe has also decided that the bottom line trumps politics and maybe “Hitler” isn’t so bad after all. At least not so bad that “we” can’t do business with him. Hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski recently traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Trump, a move “The View” host Sunny Hostin called “kissing the ring.” Whether it’s obeisance, a good business decision, or both is up for debate but what is clear is that a segment of the media has decided that eternal resistance is a bad move.
Some might argue that it’s too early to see these events as an indication of a seismic shift in the culture wars. Perhaps, but I for one find myself optimistic for the first time in years. Society appears to be healing itself. This tends to happen after a decisive political victory. Is the battle over? No. Leftist politics is far from dead. Rent controls, wealth taxes, safe spaces, and a general sense that everyone is special, and everyone’s problems are caused by society instead of individual choices are far too prevalent. There is still work to be done but rest assured, we’re winning!
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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The federal lawsuit against San Jose State University and all the teams forfeiting games against them due to the transgender player shows a big shift. Many players are still afraid to speak out, but many are finding their voice also. The Christian high school team that refused to play in a final due to a transgender player was telling as well. Girls and women need to be safe. A 14 year old girl was raped a couple of days ago by another Venezuelan in the country illegally. Bad enough we have to worry about that with the children.
As a Brit, this gives me some hope our country might soon be on the mend.